George Will: Huckabee Repudiates GOP Principles

George Will: Huckabee Repudiates GOP Principles

Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has been surging in the polls among likely GOP voters, but influential columnist George Will believes his candidacy represents a “repudiation” of conservative Republican principles.

“Huckabee’s campaign actually is what Rudy Giuliani’s candidacy is misdescribed as being — a comprehensive apostasy against core Republican beliefs,” Will writes in his latest column.

Giuliani departs from recent GOP positions only on abortion and the recognition of same-sex couples, Will observes.

Huckabee, on the other hand, “broadly repudiates core Republican policies such as free trade, low taxes, the essential legitimacy of America’s corporate entities and the market system allocating wealth and opportunity,” according to Will.

Will points out that the New Hampshire chapter of the National Education Association, a teachers union that is an important part of the Democratic Party’s base, last week endorsed Huckabee in the Republican primary.

The union “likes, as public employees generally do, his record of tax increases, and it applauds his opposition to school choice,” Will writes, adding that Huckabee “represents wholesale repudiation of what came after the 1970s — Reaganism.”

Will also has harsh words for Hillary Clinton, accusing her of having “consistently bad judgment” and saying “her campaign’s behavior radiates bad character.”